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Gainfully employed
Jack hadn’t been sure about his ability to get a job here until he’d started looking. There were a surprising number of potential jobs, though, even in a relatively small town like this. There was an urgent care facility that wanted another staff doctor and there was an opening for a clinical diagnosis professor at the med school that specifically stated it wanted someone with ER experience. He’d never taught a structured class, but he did teach. He did it every single day with the med students, interns, and residents. He was pretty good at it, if you asked him, although he knew he could always be better. The hospital was where he really wanted to work, though, and fortunately Robby let him know that one of their night shift ER attendings had just moved away. Jack wasn’t sure how anyone moved away from a town that couldn’t be left, but some things weren’t worth trying to understand and he also wasn’t going to look any gift horses in any mouths.
He applied online just like anyone else and put Robby down as a reference. There wasn’t anyone else to put down, actually but Robby was probably enough of a reference. He’d gotten a call from the hiring manager about an hour after he finished with all the various application details, which had involved uploading a hastily recreated resume and then entering most of the same information again in all the little fields of the online application. Whoever built these online application portals was a sadist and he meant that in the most literal sense.
They’d asked him to come in for an interview the next day, so they were definitely looking to fill this position quickly. He understood, though. Being down an attending made shift scheduling even more like herding cats than usual.
He put on the suit he’d just bought for this purpose and presented himself as ordered at the appointed time. After that, the interview had gone well. They’d thrown the usual kind of questions about standard of care and diagnostic procedures at him, but it wasn’t ever any worse than being put on the spot in med school. He’d also detected a little bit of prejudice at his path to med school from one of the doctors on the panel, but he’d heard that before and didn’t give a shit. He’d gotten here and he was a damn good doctor.
Dr. Shah had definitely been skeptical that Jack could have known Dr. Michael Robinavitch for thirty years and had joked that Jack and Robby must have met when they were in high school. It hadn’t actually been that far off, but Jack had politely chuckled and confirmed that the timeline was correct. Dr. Shah had also read from Robby’s email recommending Jack, which noted that Robby considered Jack one of the finest doctors he’d ever met and that Robby would and had trusted Jack to handle any injury, situation, or diagnosis he might come across. Jack had known that was how Robby felt about his skills, but it was still nice to hear it.
The same interviewer who had questioned how he’d gotten from the Army to med school and fucking smirked when Jack mentioned the GI Bill had also questioned why Jack wasn’t a Chief Attending. Jack thought he might hear a little bit of a suggestion that Jack wasn’t good enough for a Chief position or maybe an attempt to see if Jack would say something about why he’d left the Army other than his bland statement that he’d been medically retired, but either way, that was more bullshit and he said so. He used more polite words, but he made sure Dr. Evenson knew that Jack knew he was capable of being a Chief Attending in every possible way and just did not want to be. He was also pretty clear that he wasn’t going to be sharing any details beyond what he’d already said. He knew he would be disclosing his disability if and when he was hired, but only to HR. His mostly-polite refusal to take Evenson’s bait had made the other interviewers smile, so he had a feeling Dr. Evenson was not well-liked. There was always one.
In the end, they all smiled and shook his hand and said he’d hear from them in the next week or two. Almost as soon as the panel of doctors filed out of the room, though, the hiring manager informed him that he was hired and that they’d like him to come in on Thursday September 25 for all the paperwork with his first actual shift on Friday September 26 from 1900 to 0700.
So that was that. He had a job, and he had the job he wanted. He shook the hiring manager's hand one more time and got in the elevator to go down to the lobby. If he was lucky, Robby might not be too busy and Jack could tell him the good news in person. If he had his hands full, literally or figuratively, Jack would just text him.
He applied online just like anyone else and put Robby down as a reference. There wasn’t anyone else to put down, actually but Robby was probably enough of a reference. He’d gotten a call from the hiring manager about an hour after he finished with all the various application details, which had involved uploading a hastily recreated resume and then entering most of the same information again in all the little fields of the online application. Whoever built these online application portals was a sadist and he meant that in the most literal sense.
They’d asked him to come in for an interview the next day, so they were definitely looking to fill this position quickly. He understood, though. Being down an attending made shift scheduling even more like herding cats than usual.
He put on the suit he’d just bought for this purpose and presented himself as ordered at the appointed time. After that, the interview had gone well. They’d thrown the usual kind of questions about standard of care and diagnostic procedures at him, but it wasn’t ever any worse than being put on the spot in med school. He’d also detected a little bit of prejudice at his path to med school from one of the doctors on the panel, but he’d heard that before and didn’t give a shit. He’d gotten here and he was a damn good doctor.
Dr. Shah had definitely been skeptical that Jack could have known Dr. Michael Robinavitch for thirty years and had joked that Jack and Robby must have met when they were in high school. It hadn’t actually been that far off, but Jack had politely chuckled and confirmed that the timeline was correct. Dr. Shah had also read from Robby’s email recommending Jack, which noted that Robby considered Jack one of the finest doctors he’d ever met and that Robby would and had trusted Jack to handle any injury, situation, or diagnosis he might come across. Jack had known that was how Robby felt about his skills, but it was still nice to hear it.
The same interviewer who had questioned how he’d gotten from the Army to med school and fucking smirked when Jack mentioned the GI Bill had also questioned why Jack wasn’t a Chief Attending. Jack thought he might hear a little bit of a suggestion that Jack wasn’t good enough for a Chief position or maybe an attempt to see if Jack would say something about why he’d left the Army other than his bland statement that he’d been medically retired, but either way, that was more bullshit and he said so. He used more polite words, but he made sure Dr. Evenson knew that Jack knew he was capable of being a Chief Attending in every possible way and just did not want to be. He was also pretty clear that he wasn’t going to be sharing any details beyond what he’d already said. He knew he would be disclosing his disability if and when he was hired, but only to HR. His mostly-polite refusal to take Evenson’s bait had made the other interviewers smile, so he had a feeling Dr. Evenson was not well-liked. There was always one.
In the end, they all smiled and shook his hand and said he’d hear from them in the next week or two. Almost as soon as the panel of doctors filed out of the room, though, the hiring manager informed him that he was hired and that they’d like him to come in on Thursday September 25 for all the paperwork with his first actual shift on Friday September 26 from 1900 to 0700.
So that was that. He had a job, and he had the job he wanted. He shook the hiring manager's hand one more time and got in the elevator to go down to the lobby. If he was lucky, Robby might not be too busy and Jack could tell him the good news in person. If he had his hands full, literally or figuratively, Jack would just text him.
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"Fuck, no," says Robby, shaking his head. "Absolutely not. Walsh is your problem, not mine. Now, Garcia? She's very near and dear to my heart." He says it a flat tone, but, actually, he's got time for Yolanda Garcia, just the same as he knows Jack's got time for Walsh. Yeah, they've both got egos, but that's practically a requirement in a surgeon. They'd stand out more if they didn't.
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"I just realized I gotta break in a whole new set of surgeons," he replied with a sigh. "Maybe I should rethink taking this job."
He wouldn't and Robby knew he wouldn't, but that didn't mean he wouldn't bitch about it.
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"You can't leave me to go it alone," he says, both eyebrows raised. He's playing -- he knows Jack is taking the job -- but there's no harm in teasing. "Isn't it supposed to be all 'no man left behind' with you military bros? Or does that not extend to me?"
He knows it does. It always has.
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"Because honestly that sounds like it could be hilarious."
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"Fuck you," says Robby, the words full of affection as he shakes his head. He's not in bad shape for a man his age -- better in Darrow than in Chicago, probably, since he's taken up running on the boardwalk, and he's been surfing -- but he's not ever going to be as fit as Jack still is, even though he's been out of the military for years. As much as you ever can be out, anyway.
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"You probably ought to get back to taking care of the good people of Darrow at some point."
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"Oh, shit, youi're right," says Robby, glancing down at his watch, which is the same Casio that he's been wearing for twenty years. He stands up. "I'll get you a beer later?"
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“Yeah, yeah, we’ll celebrate later. Go keep the citizens of Darrow from dying from a splinter,”. Jack replied, also standing and waving Robby off in the direction of the ED.
“I’ll get this stuff thrown away while you figure out how much chocolate you need to buy your charge nurse.”